"Having a tough time painting these giant stacks of wheat. I guess I assumed I'd blow through them no problem because they're just giant stacks of wheat and I'm a professional painter, but getting all the wheat to look good is tough. June 30, 1890 Painted a decent stack of wheat today. Going to call it, "Wheatstack in the Sunlight, Morning Effect." Something like that."
"Confession: I hated literally everything about painting that stack of wheat, especially how the light bounced off it. But here's the thing: I have to paint the light right. People go apeshit about the light and how accurate the light is. They ask annoying questions like, "Are the shadows accurate based on the light?" And I always think to myself, "Who gives a fuck? It's a painting of a red boat and it looks like a million bucks.""
Claude Monet began in 1890 focusing on painting giant stacks of wheat and kept detailed journal entries about the process. Monet repeatedly struggled with rendering the wheat and the effects of light, sometimes disliking entire paintings while insisting on accurate light. Monet experimented with single and multiple stacks, noted failures when conflicting light directions occurred, and pursued studies at specific times of day and season. Monet committed to painting stacks at summer end, fall, winter with snow, and spring, treating the series as a rigorous investigation of seasonal and lighting variations.
Read at The New Yorker
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